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The IMF and the force of History: Ten Events and Ten Ideas that Have Shaped the Institution
Author: Mr. James M. Boughton
Series:
IMF Working Papers
Volume/Issue:
Volume 2004: Issue 075
Language:
English
Publication Date:
01 May 2004
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451849769.001
ISBN:
9781451849769
ISSN:
1018-5941
Pages:
25
Keywords:
WP; IMF policy advice; financial crisis; IMF staff; IMF charter; IMF financing; IMF; postwar economic history; international financial institutions; IMF policy condition; IMF analysis; IMF surveillance; International monetary system; Exchange rates; Inflation targeting; Currencies; Africa; Global
Legal-disclaimer:
IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.
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The International Monetary Fund was designed during World War II by men whose worldview had been shaped by the Great War and the Great Depression. Their views on how the postwar international monetary system should function were also shaped by their economics training and their nationalities. After the IMF began functioning as an institution, its evolution was similarly driven by a combination of political events (Suez, African independence, the collapse of global communism), economic events (the rising economic power of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia), and trends and cycles in economic theory (the monetary approach to the balance of payments, new classical economics, the rise and fall of the Washington Consensus). As they happened, these forces had effects that were perceived as adaptations to current events and new ideas within a fixed institutional structure and mandate. The cumulative effect of history on the institution has been rather more profound and requires a longer and larger perspective.
Cover IMF Working Papers
IMF Working Papers
ISSN:
1018-5941
Publisher:
International Monetary Fund